Pro Bono
Penn LALSA is committed to expanding its reach to the Philadelphia community, particularly to immigrant and Latin American populations, as well as to the Latino community more broadly.
Community engagement
LALSA’s community outreach committee organizes pro bono work and also seeks to inform and publicize opportunities for Latin American law students to increase their involvement in public service. Opportunities have included:
In 2017, LALSA is planning our own service-learning trip to Guatemala, a first for the club.
School-based learning opportunities
LALSA engages in volunteer work and has co-sponsored a number of panels discussing public interest concerns affecting the Latino community. Past panels include:
Juvenile In Justice: End Solitary
A lunch panel sponsored by the Youth Advocacy Project, ACS, BLSA, and LALSA discussing juvenile solitary confinement. Correctional facilities routinely hold children in total isolation for weeks or months at a time, causing irreparable damage. This panel will bring together survivors of juvenile solitary confinement, legal experts, advocates, and an investigative reporter to discuss the experience of solitary and its consequences on children, and the need for this institution to end permanently across the United States. The panelists are:
MARSHA LEVICK co-founded Juvenile Law Center in 1975.
JOHNNY PEREZ is the Safe Reentry advocate at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project (MHP), a nonprofit law firm providing pro bono legal services to underserved population in NYC.
ROMEEKA WILLIAMS is a youth outreach coordinator with the Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project, an organization that provides workshops and support for youth in the Philadelphia Prison System’s adult jails, and advocates on behalf of treating kids as kids in the criminal justice system.
SAMANTHA MELAMED is a reporter on the features desk at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com.
Combating Labor Trafficking in the United States
In which LALSA, the National Lawyers Guild, and various Pro Bono organizations hosted a discussion of forced labor practices affecting domestic servants in homes, farm workers coerced through threats of violence and legal action, and factory workers held in inhumane conditions with inadequate pay. The conversation zeroed in on the DOJ issuance of an indictment alleging Global Horizons, a labor recruiting company, recruited over 400 Thai workers and forced them to work in agriculture in at least 13 states by ensuring the workers accrued a substantial debt, confiscating their passports and visas, and deporting workers that didn’t cooperate with the company’s demands. The discussion featured panelists who work to protect the rights of workers, including Sarah Rempel, Policy Director of the Centro de Los Derechos del Migrante, and Ashley Feasley, Immigration Policy Advisor of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
H-2B Visas and the Department of Labor: Recent Developments in Non-Agricultural Temporary Worker Visas
LALSA co-sponsored a panel discussion revolving around the H-2B visa program and the Department of Labor's involvement. Panelists included the Department of Labor’s Samantha Thomas and Penn Law’s Professor Paoletti, director of the Transnational Legal Clinic and will be discussing the history of the program, how it ended up where it is, and current litigation that calls into question whether the DOL even has rulemaking authority concerning the program.
Community engagement
LALSA’s community outreach committee organizes pro bono work and also seeks to inform and publicize opportunities for Latin American law students to increase their involvement in public service. Opportunities have included:
- Nonpartisan, bilingual poll monitoring through LatinoJustice for the 2016 Presidential election
- Translation service opportunities through TPIC Pro Bono Projects and the Legal Clinic Program
- Spring break trip and other partnership opportunities with the Penn Law Immigrant Rights Project and other student groups
- ACLU of Michigan summer internship opportunity
- Fellowship and Clerkship opportunities at the Environmental Law Institute
- Spring and summer internships at the Center for Reproductive Rights
- Career clerk opportunities for post-graduation
In 2017, LALSA is planning our own service-learning trip to Guatemala, a first for the club.
School-based learning opportunities
LALSA engages in volunteer work and has co-sponsored a number of panels discussing public interest concerns affecting the Latino community. Past panels include:
Juvenile In Justice: End Solitary
A lunch panel sponsored by the Youth Advocacy Project, ACS, BLSA, and LALSA discussing juvenile solitary confinement. Correctional facilities routinely hold children in total isolation for weeks or months at a time, causing irreparable damage. This panel will bring together survivors of juvenile solitary confinement, legal experts, advocates, and an investigative reporter to discuss the experience of solitary and its consequences on children, and the need for this institution to end permanently across the United States. The panelists are:
MARSHA LEVICK co-founded Juvenile Law Center in 1975.
JOHNNY PEREZ is the Safe Reentry advocate at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project (MHP), a nonprofit law firm providing pro bono legal services to underserved population in NYC.
ROMEEKA WILLIAMS is a youth outreach coordinator with the Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project, an organization that provides workshops and support for youth in the Philadelphia Prison System’s adult jails, and advocates on behalf of treating kids as kids in the criminal justice system.
SAMANTHA MELAMED is a reporter on the features desk at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com.
Combating Labor Trafficking in the United States
In which LALSA, the National Lawyers Guild, and various Pro Bono organizations hosted a discussion of forced labor practices affecting domestic servants in homes, farm workers coerced through threats of violence and legal action, and factory workers held in inhumane conditions with inadequate pay. The conversation zeroed in on the DOJ issuance of an indictment alleging Global Horizons, a labor recruiting company, recruited over 400 Thai workers and forced them to work in agriculture in at least 13 states by ensuring the workers accrued a substantial debt, confiscating their passports and visas, and deporting workers that didn’t cooperate with the company’s demands. The discussion featured panelists who work to protect the rights of workers, including Sarah Rempel, Policy Director of the Centro de Los Derechos del Migrante, and Ashley Feasley, Immigration Policy Advisor of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
H-2B Visas and the Department of Labor: Recent Developments in Non-Agricultural Temporary Worker Visas
LALSA co-sponsored a panel discussion revolving around the H-2B visa program and the Department of Labor's involvement. Panelists included the Department of Labor’s Samantha Thomas and Penn Law’s Professor Paoletti, director of the Transnational Legal Clinic and will be discussing the history of the program, how it ended up where it is, and current litigation that calls into question whether the DOL even has rulemaking authority concerning the program.
